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India's Top Court Questions WhatsApp for Delay in Appointing Grievance Officer

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Facebook-owned messaging application WhatsApp has been on the receiving end of a controversy concerning several cases of mob lynchings that had recently occurred across India, triggered by unverified videos and messages circulated on the platform.

New Delhi (Sputnik): The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued a notice to social media giant WhatsApp and the Ministry of Information Technology (IT) and Finance for failing to comply with government requests for a grievance officer to be appointed by the company in India.

READ MORE: India Instructs WhatsApp to Set Up Local Data Storage Unit

The apex court seeks a detailed reply as to why a grievance officer in India has not been appointed yet by WhatsApp despite being told to do so.

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WhatsApp Rejects India's Request to Track Origin of Malicious Information
The notice from the Supreme Court comes as the India government and WhatsApp discuss ways to avoid the circulation of fake news on the latter's platform. 

WhatsApp has also taken up several measures, including awareness campaigns through newspapers in India, to sensitize users against fake news and to curb its spread. 

WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels met IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last week. Prasad told the media after the meeting that he had asked the company to immediately appoint a grievance officer in India to address concerns involving the circulation of fake messages. 

READ MORE: WhatsApp India Rolls Out Changes to Limit Spread of Rumors

Prasad said that he had also asked the messaging platform to comply with regulators and find a technical solution to tracing the origin of sinister messages. 

In response, WhatsApp agreed to establish up a local office but refused to add a feature that would enable messages to be traced. News reports quoted WhatsApp as clarifying that the company had no access to their users' data.

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